"In his discussion of the "laws and mores" of the United States, Alexis de Tocqueville was frank in acknowledging the racialized parameters of Jacksonian democracy. Describing the United States as an "Anglo-American confederation," Tocqueville characterized Black and Indigenous people as "tangents to my subjects, being American, but not democratic." Yet despite his assertion in the first volume that these "three races" defined the American project, by the time he was writing the second volume, Tocqueville was already acknowledging that other nonwhite populations beyond "Indians and Negroes" were part of the United States. One of these groups was Mexicans. Interestingly-as the epigraph to this chapter shows-in prognosticating about this "new" population, Tocqueville's account simultaneously recognizes and disappears them. This practice of acknowledgment and erasure would become a familiar part of the Anglo racial imaginary-particularly when addressing the Mexican presence in the United States."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from FrancePhilosophers from FranceHistorians from FranceCultural criticsSociologists from France
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Cristina Beltrán Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy (2020) p 65
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alexis de Tocqueville
1805 – 1859
158 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville →
Related Quotes
"When the ranks of society are unequal, and men unlike one another in condition, there are some individuals wielding t…"
"Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves."
"Step back in time; look closely at the child in the very arms of his mother; see the external world reflected for the…"
"Born under another sky, placed in the middle of an always-moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent wh…"
"The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes abo…"
"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everythi…"
"Men sometimes submit to shame, to tyranny, to conquest, but they never long suffer anarchy. There is no people so bar…"
"The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing."
"In the midst of this American society, so well policed, so sententious, so charitable, a cold selfishness and complet…"
"The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That i…"